INTRODUCTION

• The data was gathered from:
  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) – Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.
• The NCHS dataset includes:
  • Mortality statistics across various U.S. states over multiple years
  • Excludes murder from the listed causes of death

QUESTIONS

1. What are the leading causes of death since 2001?
2. Which state had the most amount of deaths in the US?
3. What was the leading cause of death in California?
4. How has the cause of heart disease deaths changed over time?
5. How has the cause of cancer deaths changed over time?
6. We know the adjusted death rate for the data, but what does the rate look like when we subtract “all causes’?
7. What is the death rate by cause and state?
8. What is the age-adjusted death rate for heart disease?

Variables in the dataset:

• Year: Year in which the incident took place.
• X113 cause name: The full, official name of the cause of death classified by the NCHS.
• Cause name: A broader label for the cause of death.
• State: The U.S. state where the data was collected.
• Deaths: The total number of deaths reported for a specific cause of death.
• Age-adjusted death rate: The death rate per 100,000 people, adjusted per age group for fair comparison.

Leading Causes of Death Since 2001

CLRD stands for Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases.

Total Deaths in Each State

Leading Cause of Deaths in California

Changes Throughout the Years

How has the number of heart disease deaths changed over time?

How has the number of cancer deaths changed over time?

We know the adjusted death rate for the data, but what does the rate look like when we subtract “all causes’?

What is age adjusted death rate?

• Different states or regions have different age structures (e.g., Florida has more older people). Older populations naturally have higher death rates so comparing raw death rates across states would be misleading.

• To make fair comparisons across the states, public health stats use age adjustment

• Instead of comparing raw numbers, we adjust both using the same “standard” population age structure, usually the U.S. standard population.

What is the death rate by cause and state?

How do the Amount of Deaths and Age Adjusted Death Rate Compare?

A Closer Look Into Heart Disease and Cancer